Horace Greeley

Horace Greeley is a true American success story. Having grown up in abject poverty and with little education, Greeley founded the New York Tribune in 1841 and made it one of the most influential papers in the country. A social reformer, Greeley advocated temperance, women’s rights, and a homestead law. In the following viewpoint Greeley addresses four points he believes prove the death penalty is dangerous and brutal.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. Why does the author argue the death penalty is obsolete"
2. Why does Greeley believe the death penalty sanctions revenge"

Is it ever justifiable . . . to [kill] malefactors by sentence of law? I answer Yes, provided Society can in no other way be secured against a repetition of the culprit’s offence. In committing a murder, for...